my uncle who works for a computer company was surpised when he found out i installed linux on my windows pc

i told him i made a partition, linux formatted it and installed linux on that. But apparently he says its dangerous to dual boot and i could lose all of my data. I though about this but then i realized that i wasnt dual booting the only way i access my linux system is through a boot disc.

so is he right? im guessing what im doin is ok but i was just confused

03-08-2004

kriss

Short answer: no

Well, it can be harmful in some ways (it will not happen that the GNU tools will just delete your windows partition, you have to do stuff by hand) like you writing to a NTFS disk/partition from GNU. That could screw things up. Looking aside from things like that, the two systems never interfere with eachother.

GNU doesn't alter the windows registery, nor does Windows delete your /etc (although it wouldn't suprise me if MS did that some time in the future).

I'm not shure what your uncle meant by loosing all of your data, exept fixable stuff like borking your bootloader and such things, but as said the two systems don't (or shouldn't) interfere with eachother unless you make them.

Kriss

03-08-2004

pmeg568c

hmm yea well hes probably wrong i havent had any problem yet

o well i used to go to him for all my problems tehee not anymore

03-08-2004

flw

There's nothing in the initial process or ongoing use of dual booting that increases the chance of data loss.

Maybe what he really meant was, if your not clear on what your doing in general and have not backed up any of your personal data and apps that are not on CD etc... it could be dangerous. Maybe he was trying to be nice or simply because he had no idea how to do it correctly himself so he assumed it was rocket science which it is not.

There are several posts here on dual booting if you need any basic directions or even just some more quesitons.

BTW- all my machines are dual booted win9x/xp, win2k/xp, and suse/xp. Dual booting is not for everyone but it alot easier if you want to use to an OS's but not use a OS emulator app.

Just my opinion-good luck.

03-08-2004

Nerderello

been doing for years with various OSs and never had a problem (apart from Windows' irratating habit of overwriting the mbr.. Grrrr).

have fun

Nerderello

03-09-2004

ducu13

the only thing i know is that if you have instaled a linux boot loader on /dev/hda.. and you want to erase linux you might loose your windows!I mean you`ll defeneatly loose your windows.But i don`t think this is the case and i don`t know why you should install grub on /dev/hda...the mbr is more eficient ...

03-09-2004

Giro

/dev/hda would be the MBR once you have uninstalled Linux you must rewrite the MBR with a windows disk using fdisk /MBR

03-09-2004

ducu13

by the way (i don`t know if this is the right place to talk about it)...there is something strange with partition table...I have heard that it`s better to format linux partition from windows and not from the linux instalation kit.Is that true?
I know that i have made linux partitons from windows and then i formated them again when i installed linux and now if i use ,for example, norton disk doctor or disk error it gives me a message that there is a problem with my partition table...something about UCH or LBA i don`t know for sure.Anyway...if i give the option to repair it...i loose my swap partition and can not use it again and had to reinstall my linux.
And, if we`re talking about swap partiton, is there a problem if i set my swap smaller than my physical memory?

03-09-2004

Nerderello

why are you using norton utils on your PC?

Create your partions and file systems using the druid that comes with Fedora (it's very easy to use, just select the custom partion option).

The swap partition should be about two times as big as the RAM you have on board. If it is smaller, you may end up with programs running out of memory. But first, what is your SWAP file usuage like? There is a GUI in system tools that will tell you.

I know it's hard at the beginning, but you should trust Linux a bit more.

have fun

Nerderello

03-09-2004

ducu13

i know it`s stupid from me because i use norton, but i was just saying that making partitions with disk druid (and i know that it`s very simple - i used it) will change my partition table.After that experience i wanted to change my partitions and i used partition magic but from the begining it gave an error message(the same one)and didn`t let me enter the program if i didn`t resolve the problem.Of course...partition magic has the option to fix the problem but, like i have said, it damaged my swap partition

Quote:

But first, what is your SWAP file usuage like? There is a GUI in system tools that will tell you.